Thursday, November 22, 2018

By
Alexander Nderitu

Before Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge, Billie Holiday, Diana Ross or even Muhammad Ali, there was another Black superstar entertainer - a woman unlike any other of her time -and her name was Josephine Baker. Her story has been told in film and documentaries and it has now landed in the live theatre world with a bang: in the form of two highly-acclaimed one-woman shows titled, La Négrophilie and Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play respectively.

Written and performed by Zakiya Iman Markland, La Négrophilie has been staged in several venues across the world, including: Frank Collymore Hall in Bridgetown, Barbados; Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Kigali, Rwanda; Kampala International Theatre Festival in Kampala, Uganda and Teatro SEA in New York, USA.

In a description posted on her official website, the playwright describes the work thus:

‘In a very racialized 1910s America, Josephine Baker is both lauded and taunted for the brown hues of her skin. Despite being incredibly talented and beautiful, internalized racism displayed by people of her own race held young Josephine in a compromising predicament concerning success in the African American theater scene. Never light enough to pass the quintessential “paperbag” test (used by blacks at this time to test the lightness of one's skin/how much white or mixed-blood one had), she left the United States and found stardom in the “land-of-the free” Paris, France, where racism was…well, different than in the States. She became an instant success; a sex icon catapulting into the first major movie star of color, an aid to French Resistance during WW2, an activist for the Civil Rights Movement, and so much more.

But what happens to the soul when fetishization, and eroticization of the body is the price you pay for fame…for freedom? Shuttling 40+ years in time, La Négrophilie takes you on the twisty ride of young Josephine’s rise to international stardom, all the while leaving behind a trail of questions about the good, bad, and ugly of oppressive love.’

Meanwhile, Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play was created by Tymisha Harris (Performer), Michael Marinaccio (Director/Producer) and Tod Kibro(Book and Musical Direction). The one-woman show wowed audiences at the 2017 Fringe Festival (USA) where it scooped multiple honors, including 'Outstanding Production of the Year',' Best Leading Actress in a Musical' (Orlando Sentinel Critic’s Pick), 'Best National Show', 'Outstanding Female Performance' and 'Festival Top Seller'. In 2016, the show scooped the ‘Best of Fest’ and ‘Outstanding Solo Performance at Fringe Festival ‘in San Diego, USA.

Actress
Tymisha Harris in Josephine: A Burlesque
Cabaret Dream Play

Born and raised in a racially segregated America, the real Josephine Baker
started dancing professionally as a teenager. Her entry into the showbiz world
coincided with the ‘Harlem Renaissance’ and at eighteen she got the opportunity
to tour to Europe with her troupe of African-American performers. In Paris,
France, where she gained instant recognition, a new show was devised for her:
the ‘Dancer in a Banana Skirt’ (and
little else). She became an overnight celebrity, instantly recognizable and
highly paid. According
to Time, a Hungarian cavalry
officer and an Italian count fought a duel in her name in Budapest, in 1928.
The sword-fight took place in a cemetery, in her presence.

Unlike the US, France had no Jim Crow laws and ‘madam la Baker’ did not
face overt racism (she could live anywhere and patronize posh eateries, for
example). She made Paris her home and would later lose her American citizenship
(although she visited America severally and participated in the Civil Rights
marches of the 1960s). In France - where she branched out into singing and
acting as well - she became a fashionista and socialite. Several French
magazines offered her fashion columns to write. Her super-shiny hair, that
stuck to her head like a coat of jet-black paint, was a major point of
interest. With regard to her better treatment in France than America (then in
the throes of often-violent Civil rights demonstrations) Josephine said:

‘How can I forget it (receiving a hero’s welcome in France)? They made
me forget the colour of my skin. All of my good friends. They were White!’

In Germany, the now-famous Black
female dancer created a sensation – and stirred controversy – after a series of
performances in post-World War 1 Berlin. She reportedly received 40,000 love
letters and 2,000 marriage proposals! She was eventually ejected from the
Berlin nightclub circuit by socialist moralists who were offended by her highly
sexualized stage act. During World War II, she zealously aided France’s war
effort and was decorated for it after the hostilities. She proudly wore her
French military uniform in peacetime, even while visiting America in the later
half of the 20th century. She also, finally, managed to get moderate success
and acclaim in the US, in her old age, performing in extravagant costumes at
the hallowed Carnegie Hall.US author,
Darryl Pinckney (quoted in the documentary Josephine
Baker: The First Black Superstar):

‘You have to think of Josephine Baker as a symbol that the Jazz Age and
the Harlem Renaissance could share. That in some way the White and the Black
wings of this artistic movement that we could call “Modernism” could sort of
meet in her, as a symbol.’

Michael Eboda, editor of New
Nation:

‘She (Josephine Baker) exported the Harlem Renaissance to Europe. And
for her to do that at that time, and do it so quickly! She moved to Paris and
two years later, she was the highest paid (female entertainer) and most
photographed woman in the world. That’s amazing.’

The
real Josephine Baker in her hey day

(Photo: ThoughtCo)

A staunch believer in universal brotherhood, Ms Baker spent her 40s and
50s adopting and taking care of 12 children from all corners of the world, whom
she christened ‘The Rainbow Tribe’. After enduring soul-crushing racism in the
USA and finding success and acceptance in France, she wanted to prove that all
the races of the world could, in fact, co-exist harmoniously. Despite being
wracked by ill health and with her fortunes declining, she was determined to
make nonsense of racial segregation. Her words:

‘My little village, this little village of the world, is badly in need
of financial support so I came back on the stage to make it possible for it to
live on and on and on. Because it is very important, that little village. I
have a lot of children from the four corners of the world who live there (in
her French château). They are a symbol of true brotherhood. I must have the
money for these children. The (château, which also doubled up as a tourist
attraction) must live, it must not die. This village is too important. It
represents a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful ideal. An ideal (that) must not
die. It mustn’t.’

Sustaining ‘The Rainbow Tribe’ well beyond her ‘productive’ years put
enormous financial strain on the former entertainer, and she spent the last
days of her life on the breadline. Her impact on arts and culture, however,
continued to be felt across the world, like seismic shock waves. According to
the documentary film Josephine Baker: The
First Black Superstar:

‘Josephine’s impact stretched way beyond the theatre. She entranced and
inspired a generation of writers and artists in Paris, including Picasso,
Hemingway, Collette and Seminole. Alexander Colder sculpted wire models of her,
and Gertrude Stein imposed an affectionate tribute.’

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Veteran writer, businesswoman and broadcaster Muthoni Likimani was recognized,
among other female ‘high achievers’, by President Uhuru Kenyatta, on August 23rd
2018. At a function held at State House Nairobi, the nation’s fourth President presented
state honours to some of the women who have ‘championed equality and played big
roles in encouraging other women’ to achieve more. ‘Kenya is a nation of strong
women and we salute you,’ he said. President Kenyatta simultaneously launched
the ‘trailblazer initiative’ whose remit is to identify and honour Kenyan women
whose heroic works have significantly contributed to shaping the country. The
awardees cut across political, social, economic and artistic sectors. Prof Leah
Marangu, Muthoni Likimani and Mary Okello were conferred the Order of the
Burning Spear (OBS) for their achievements in their respective fields. It is
noteworthy that Ms. Likimani is the recipient of a previous Presidential Award,
the Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS), which was conferred to her in 2008.

Muthoni Likimani, 93, is a prolific writer and motivational speaker and
has given numerous public lectures at various fora, locally and
internationally. A mother, grand-mother, and great-grandmother, Ms. Likimani is
living history and has participated in numerous professions and held diverse
positions in her long and colourful life. She has worked has worked as a
broadcaster, teacher, publisher and author. Some of her lesser known pursuits include
being a beauty queen and a Councilor in the Nairobi City Council in her younger
years. Her books include Passbook Number
F.47927: Women and Mau Mau in Kenya, What Does a Man Want?, They Shall Be
Chastised and Fighting Without
Ceasing (amemoir).

In 2014, the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of
Peace (IFLAC) appointed Muthoni Likimani as their ‘Peace Ambassador’ in Kenya.
Announcing the appointment, IFLAC’s Founding President, Prof. Ada Aharoni,
posted on the organization’s
official website: ‘Our new IFLAC PEACE AMBASSADOR IN KENYA, Writer Muthoni
Likimani is a role model for all women leaders in our global village! Welcome
to the IFLAC family dear Muthoni!’ On her part, an elated Muthoni said, ‘Quite
often, my advice has been on using power of the pen, not guns, to fight for one’s
rights.’ In her capacity as IFLAC’s local Ambassador, she sourced peace-themed submissions
from local writers for an international e-book anthology titled ‘Anti
-Terror and Peace: IFLAC Anthology’ (2016). The anthology consists of
articles, short stories, poems and haikus from 93 contributors in 23 different
countries around the world. The Kenyan contributors are Muthoni Likimani, Henry
Ole Kulet, Moraa Gitaa, Alexander Nderitu, Njeru Kathangu Mtumishi, Gilbert
Muyumbu, Grace Ebby, Francline Allan and Jacob Oketch.

Born in Murang’a County in 1926, Muthoni Likimani was lucky to get an
opportunity to travel to the London School of Hygiene (UK) for a nutrition
course in 1958. While studying in London, her fluency in the Kiswahili language
landed her a job with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Ten years
later, she landed in Jerusalem for training in journalism and broadcasting at Kol
Yisrael college. On her return to Kenya, she worked for the Voice of Kenya (now
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) and started a marketing/PR firm called Noni’s
Publicity. In 1994, she received the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK)
National Award ‘in Recognition for Exemplary Service to Women Advancement in
Kenya’.In 2005, she was awarded the
Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK) Golden Honour Award for Outstanding
Leadership of Service to the Public Relations Profession.

Affectionately known as ‘Cucu’ (grandma) to young scribes, Ms. Likimani
is also the chairperson of FEMTEL Women Writers Association, and the patron of
PEN Kenya Centre which promotes literature and champions Freedom of Speech.

He was the inspiration for
Kenya’s most expensive poem, ‘The Mathematics of Carey Francis’ (www.AlexanderNderitu.com/mathafu.html).
Amongst colonial-era Kenyan settlers, this enigmatic educators’ statuture is so
great, it is matched only by the likes of Lord Hugh Delamare, Karen Blixen,
Lord & Lady Baden-Powell, and Blessed Irene Stefani. But who was Carey
Francis when he was at home? Like a bat trying to determine the size, speed and
solidity of an object by bouncing multiple sonar signals off the target and
analyzing the feedback, let as examine information from various sources and see
if it paints a sufficient picture of our person of interest…

‘Carey Francis was born at Hampstead on September 13th,
1897, and died at Nairobi on July 27th, 1966. He was educated at
William Ellis School, Hampstead, where he showed extraordinary promise both at
work and at games; he was Head of the school, and the captain of football,
cricket, tennis, and athletics. He served in the First World War, holding a
commission in the H.A.C., and being mentioned in dispatches. He came through
the war unscathed and after the war, he picked up the scholarship to which he
had already been elected at Trinity College, Cambridge…

His mathematical interests were mainly in the area of analysis, and he
was much influenced by three Trinity mathematicians, Hardy, Littlewood and
Pollard. In 1923, he was awarded a Rayleigh Prize for a substantial essay on
the Denjoy-Stieltjes Integral, and two papers, “On differentiation with respect
to a function: and on “The Lebesque-Stieltjes Integral” appeared in the
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in November 1925…He was a
brilliant and immensely popular lecturer…He also served as Secretary of the
Faculty Board of Mathematics…

His heart had always been in the Mission field, and his friends were
not surprised when, in 1928, he left Cambridge and went to Kenya as a lay
teaching missionary under the church Missionary Society. He first taught at
Maseno, in Nyanza, and it was there that his
pupils gave him the name of “Achuma” – the man of steel. But Maseno was
only the training-ground for his real-life work, which was the Headmastership
of the Alliance High School in Nairobi. This position he held from 1940 to
1962. It was here that his most important work for African education was
done…Under his guidance, the school attained an almost mystical prestige, and
to be a pupil of Carey Francis at Alliance was a highly valued and much-coveted
distinction. More than half of the members of Kenya’s present cabinet are old
boys of his school.’ – ‘Edward Carey Francis’ (essay) by L. A. Pars, Journal of the London Mathematical Society
(1968)

‘His (Prof David Wasawo’s) brilliance was best summarised by Edward
Carey Francis, the legendary headmaster who taught him at the Alliance High
School in an interview carried in the Sunday
Nation in 1965. When Carey Francis was asked who he thought was the most
brilliant student he had ever taught, the man who shaped some of Kenya’s
brightest minds at Alliance was prompt in his response: “Far and away, David
Wasawo”.’ - 'Brilliant Scholar Who Lectured Into His Golden Years', Business
Daily

‘Nonetheless, Edward Carey Francis, the sixth principal (1928-1940) is
the man most popularly associated with Maseno School. He was born on September
13, 1897 at Hampstead where he was also educated showing great promise as an
all round student at an early age. His education was interrupted by World War 1
in which he also served with distinction.

Carey Francis proceeded to Cambridge University in 1919 where his
academic, sports and leadership qualities blossomed. He was particularly gifted
in the realm of mathematics, especially in its more abstract form, winning many
awards at Cambridge for outstanding performance and originality. Joining the
academic staff at Cambridge between 1922 and 1928, he was a brilliant and
immensely popular lecturer, serving as a fellow of Peterhouse and director of
studies in mathematics.’ – ‘Maseno School: The Giant That Started Beneath GumTrees' (article) by Douglas Kiereini

‘His work was to mould obedient servants of the colonial system, not to
create elites.’ – From the book, ‘The
Kenyatta Cabinets: Drama, Intrigue, Triumph’ (2012)

'Edward Carey Francis left a glowing career at Cambridge to teach in a
junior secondary school in Kenya. He wowed many with his numerical skills, but
his temper and poor opinion of Africans were also legendary...The myriad
theories aside, Edward Carey Francis’ move came at a time when he had the world
in the palm of his hand. Ironically, Carey Francis’ molding of young Kenyans to
serve her majesty’s government unwitting sharpened the minds that would later
overturn British rule in Kenya. The echoes of his actions are still felt, half
a century after his demise on July 27, 1966, at the age of 69.' - 'Math Guru,Magician And Man Of Steel' (article) by Amos Kareithi

'Whenever Carey Francis name is mentioned many remember two things;
Mathematics and Alliance High School...No educator influenced the destiny of
the country more than he did. No white person was as revered by Kenyans as
Edward Carey Francis.' - http://www.kassfm.co.ke

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Kenya
National Library officials, young students, and Worldreader staff at the launch
of the LEAP 2.0 Report

On 1st August 2018, as Kenyans gladly said goodbye to an
exceptionally wet and misty July, Worldreader and the Kenya National LibraryService (knls) released a report from a joint program dubbed ‘LEAP 2.0’. The
LEAP (Libraries, E-reading, Activities and Partnerships) project brought
Worldreader’s digital reading platform to 61 public libraries in Kenya. It took
place over 3 years (2014 – 2017) and delivered 3,000 e-reading devices and over
600,000 e-books across Kenya. It was funded by the Bill & Melina Gates Foundation
(BMGF). The ‘breakfast launch’ of the project’s findings
was held at the Sarova Panafric Hotel in Nairobi and was attended by publishers, librarians, authors,
Worldreader staff and journalists, among others.

Registered in 2010, Worldreader is an international not-for-profit
organization that was founded by David Risher, a former Amazon.com Senior Vice
President, and Colin McElwee, a former director of marketing at ESADE Business
School in Spain.

Worldreader’s electronic library consists of 42,233 African and international book titles in 43 languages, including Kiswahili, Hausa, Arabic, English and Hindi. The library can be accessed through Worldreader-branded e-reading devices or through the Worldreader mobile phone app which is freely available from Google PlayStore. ‘Featured books’ in the library currently include The Angel of Mexico City by Aminatta Forna, The Girl With the Magic Hands by Nnedi Okorafor, Zvakwana by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Grandmother’s Winning Smile by Stanley Gazemba, The Ghost of Sani Abacha by Chuma Nwokolo and The Baobabs of Tete by Kari Dako. Thus far, over 6 million people from 50 countries have read from the digital library. Worldreader collaborates with device manufacturers, local and international publishers, government agencies, education officials, and local communities in order to boost reading worldwide.

COMMUNITY IMPACT OF LEAP 2.0

Members
of the public are introduced to e-readers outside a knls branch

The project began with a one-year pilot (LEAP 1.0) which tested the
use, function and adoption of e-readers in selected libraries in order to
determine how e-readers affected library patronage, communities, staff,
policies and procedures. The initial testing sites, in 2014, were eight public
and community libraries located in Western Kenya, specifically Kisumu, Kakamega
and Busia. According to Juliana Muchai, Principal Resource Mobilization Officer
at knls, Western Kenya was chosen because Worldreader was already active in the
region. 200 e-readers, each pre-loaded with 200 digital book titles, were
deployed. The twin objectives were to increase availability of reading
materials in public and community libraries and to promote reading using
technology. The overall goals of LEAP were:

Building patrons’ technological skills

Improving literacy skills through reading

Attracting different age groups to the
library

Building a reading culture at the library

Saving time lost during manual book
identification processes

Enhancing the library’s public profile

The project was later scaled up
cover the entire country through knls’ 61 libraries, hence ‘LEAP 2.0’. Lessons
from Phase one guided Phase 2. The aim was to increase knls’ capacity to use
digital reading to serve its patrons and to create a sustainable digital
reading program. The initiative was supported by grants totaling $3.5 million
received in form of equipment (e-readers), digital books and training.

Juliana
Muchai, Principal Resource Mobilization Officer at knls

It is noteworthy that LEAP 2.0 was the first-ever project to cover all
knls libraries, thereby achieving national scale, contributing towards the
gov’t’s Vision 2030 (a local blueprint for industrialization), and creating a
model that can be replicated in other countries, especially in the Third
World.Speaking at the report launch, knls
board member Sam Madoka said:

‘It is pertinent on
this occasion to take a brief look at the partnership that knls and Worldreader
have had in the past 4 years with the inaugural LEAP 1.0 project back in 2014.
The partnership with Worldreader has brought digital reading to the communities
and transformed the reading culture in the grassroots. Libraries are
cornerstones of our community, clearly, and public libraries are a place where
literacy can grant those living around the library the ability to grow and
develop their personal, social and professional goals.’

According to Joan Mwachi-Amolo, the Director, Worldreader, East Africa, ‘Worldreader and knls strongly believed that in order to move the
needle on Kenya’s national ICT strategy and catapult Kenya to a new level of
digital access and information sharing, it was necessary to harness and enhance
the power of libraries.’

Once again, Sam Madoka:

‘LEAP 2.0 has had
tremendous impact on knls and the community. Over the course of this project,
libraries conducted outreach activities to institutions and members of society
who were unable to come to the libraries – from hospitals to prisons to schools
in far-flung areas, to physically disadvantaged homes as well as mental health
institutions thus increasing knls visibility across the country…This project
has changed the traditional role of libraries and helped them remain relevant
in a growing digital age. Libraries are now disseminating information outside
of their walls. This value-added service has helped them increase revenue due
to patronage and facilitated perception change with the public in
general…Libraries have been recognized for local and international awards for
ICT-based innovations. Innovations such
as these have brought change in a local context, exposing knls to the
pan-African global audience, benefiting generations.’

In 2016 and 2017, knls branches in Nakuru, Kibera, Kisumu, Koru and
Buruburu emerged winners at the Library of the Year Awards (aka Maktaba Awards)
in the Public and Community Libraries categories. Thika and Nakuru Libraries received the EIFL
Public Library Innovation Awards for contributing to education, and creative
use of ICT in Public Libraries.

LIBRARIES AND PRISONS

‘Harnessing
the power of libraries’: Schools were the biggest responders to digital devices
in libraries.

‘Libraries are not just for reading any more,’ said Kaltuma Sama, the
soft-spoken Head Librarian at knls Buruburu. ‘There has been a paradigm shift
in what libraries are all about…Librarians are no longer the desk librarians.
Librarians go out to disseminate information. We go out with the e-readers and
reach as many schools and settlements as possible. The introduction of the e-readers has had positive influence inside the
library as well as outside. We have been able to reach children in areas
that normally cannot be reached. My library works with children in Kamiti Prison...We
give them the e-readers and let them have a normal, comfortable hour with us.
We also reach children in remand, like Buruburu Remand Prison. These are what
are often called chokoras (street
kids). When they are taken off the street, they are taken to remand prison and
then to court…We sit on the floor and read to them…The membership of my library
has increased, patronage has also increased…Schools normally come for a
(pre-booked) slot…’

Kaltuma
Salma, head librarian at knls Buruburu

Sejal Shah, Worldreader Board Chair, Kenya also chipped in on this
one-of-a-kind outreach:

Sam Madoka, whom we were informed has a hidden talent for singing,
added:

‘Before, outreach
typically involved a librarian going out of the library with as many books as
they could carry. But now, that is different. The introduction of readers
changed outreach opportunities as librarians were now available to travel with
hundreds of books at a time instead of dozens.’

Two Trainers of Trainers (ToT’s) from each library
were coached on e-reader technology and they, in turn, trained their
colleagues. The librarians were trained on E-Reader Basics, Project Management,
Patron E-Reader Training, Project Launch, Monitoring and Evaluation, Sustainability
and Worldreader Mobile. The librarians then went out on ‘outreach activities’
and loaned out the e-readers 250, 807 times during the project period. Library
membership increased by 38,604 and users checked out e-readers a total of 314,
414 times.

A
section of the audience

Two uniformed school children from Grandstar School gave glowing
testimonials of their experience at the knls Buruburu, which they frequent. The
grades of Wanja (11) shot up after she discovered the joys of reading, with the
added bonus that she stopped being a notorious class noisemaker! Njeru (13)
formed a book discussion group with fellow library attendees his age, and became
‘fascinated’ by all things Indian after discovering the country in a book.
‘Juniors’ (young children) made up the bulk of e-reader users and library
attendees. They borrowed the devices an average of 1,200 times per month while
adults borrowed an average of 480 times per month.

According to UNESCO, there are 740 million illiterate people in the
world today, and 250 million children of primary school age who lack basic
reading and writing skills.

PUBLISHERS
‘R’ US

Lawrence
Njagi, Chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association

Kenyan publishers
were ably represented at the gathering by veteran publisher Lawrence
Njagi, CEO of Mountain Top Publishers and Chair of the Kenya Publishers
Association. ‘I am very excited with the partnership of Worldreader with
publishers and now knls (the Kenya National Library Service),’ he said.
‘We like calling knls our “mother” because, not only do they support us
financially, but they also stock and display books for us free of
charge.’ He went on to say that:

‘Worldreader has been a godsend for
publishers. We have our books in very many platforms and I will tell you
that the one platform that publishers are very confident about is Worldreader.
Two reasons. One, publishers exist to make money. We’re profit-making
companies. They (Worldreader) make us profits. Secondly, they provide us with
data. Data that tells us where our books are going, in which markets our books
are more popular, how many of those books are selling, reports, and most
importantly at the end of the day – payments…There are some platforms where we
have hosted our books. We get statements saying we’ve sold (units) but we’re
still yet to see the cheque.’

Kenyan publishers have been grappling with a 16% tax on educational
material, including books, which successive KPA bosses have insisted is
counter-productive to the nation’s development as a whole. One strong argument
is that the various components that go into the manufacturing of printed matter
are already individually taxed so there is no need to place yet another levy on
the final product. The previous KPA Chair, David Waweru of Word Alive Publishers,
once told a press briefing that the gov’t is itself the biggest buyer of school
books and is therefore also taxing itself! Lawrence Njagi, also addressed this
thorny issue:

‘We must make books,
whether in digital form or print form, affordable. We are one of the few
countries in the world that is taxing information. How is that possible? It is
like taking a gun and shooting your own leg, to see how far you’ll bleed, and
then you take yourself to hospital to get healed…Information should be easily
available and affordable to everybody.
That, I think, is the difference between ourselves and developed countries: the
power of information. Why do we want to put 16% VAT on our books? Why do you
want to put duty on the (e-reading) gadgets as the come in?’

CHALLENGES

‘There
was lack of data connectivity in some areas’

Some librarians felt that the new digital division and its outreach
program constituted ‘extra work’ and, naturally, that is something that
employees eschew. The ‘extra work’ was
especially evidenced by the Monitoring & Evaluation forms that the
librarians regularly had to fill. Other challenges included:

Inadequate number of devices

Lack of data connectivity (phones,
network) in some areas

Data collection (Handwritten, entry time,
self reported)

Device allocation

Some resistance to technology

Need for more resources to support
outreach programs

BY THE NUMBERS

Outcomes of the LEAP project include:

Increased library patronage (by over 60%)
and outreach programs by over 80%.

Acquisition of over 3,000 devices

Acquisition of close to 1M e-books

Out of the success, partners bought
additional devices for some branches (Kibera, Meru & Isiolo)

Loss or damage of the devices was
extremely low: 98.5% of the devices were fully functional which translates
to a breakage/damage rate of just 1.5%.

Impact of LEAP:

178% increase in library patronage

Over 20,000 patrons reached through
e-reading

254 library-related community events

84% of patrons reported increased reading
habits

Other interesting Worldreader statistics:

79,302 school readers have been reached by
Worldreader since 2010

31, 326 e-readers have been deployed

5,340,511 e-books have been delivered

In 2017 alone, readers spent 29 million
hours reading content on Worldreaders’ mobile phone library and e-readers.
This is the equivalent of reading Tolstoy’s voluminous masterpiece, War & Peace, 900,000 times
over!

Worldreader has thus far distributed USD
$1.5 million to more than 400 publishers around the world for digital
rights, boosting local publishing ecosystem and cultures.

The next phase of Worldreader’s library-centric propram is dubbed LOCAL
(Local Content for African Libraries), and focuses on local language content
and library activities for young children across Ghana, Uganda and Zambia.
‘Worldreader is proud of the success and impact of the LEAP 2.0 project and of
knls’ dedication to its libraries, librarians, and patrons,’ says Rebecca
Chandler-Leege, Worldreader’s Chief Impact Officer. ‘In the coming years,
Worldreader plans to iterate upon the lessons of LEAP 2.0 and our knls
partnership, to launch nationwide library digital reading projects in new
geographies. We are excited to see the continued impact of digital reading on individuals,
communities and countries.’

Joan Mwachi, Worldreader Director for East Africa:

‘What’s next after
this project is replication of the model, from the learnings that we have had.
We are doing that in Ghana, Zaire and Uganda. We need to look at libraries as
centres of development…We leverage technology and we will continue to do
so…Technology also allows the production costs of traditional print books to go
down. Our next step is to continue to integrate technology with traditional
methods because we’re already digital. It’s not the future – it’s here…And then
advocacy for digital reading. If I take the example of the e-reader, it has 200
books. Picture carrying 200 books everywhere you go. By having this library, we
are creating opportunities for access to information on a platform that is easy
to use and affordable…We have a product that we’re working on. It’s
tablet-based. It’s going to operate on Android (operating system). The product
is called “Worldreader Student”.It’s a
single-purpose device, basically just for reading. We’re testing it…So there is
opportunity for us to collaborate much more, with gov’t and other partners.’

And the knls has some forward-looking plans of its own. Richard Atuti,
knls Director:

‘I have been
engaging the book industry for quite some time now and we have these portable
devices, we have technology but we are not able to give nationwide coverage in
terms of access to information. But the
Kenya National Library Service Board is having an ambitious program to
establish a virtual library…And we have been working on this idea even with big
players in the private sector whom we want to partner with because we realize
we don’t have a platform, we don’t own content, and we need other players to
give us that accessibility. For us, we
will manage the content, as the National Library, and that platform is to have
a system where we can store all the books the publishers have in this country.
And there are three functions that will be integrated in that system. Number
one, you register with the National Library. You can borrow books online from
wherever you are…If you borrow this book and it lands in your device, after a
week or so, that content should be able to lapse from your device. It’s not
transferable, so that we protect the content. The second one is…we want to
create a semblance of Amazon in this country whereby we can sell books on their
(publishers’) behalf. Because they don’t have one single synchronized platform
where they can store content which can be sold to any customer. And we have
borrowed heavily from the practice in the market now…Using that platform,
someone can be able to buy a unit or a chapter of a book which is relevant to
what they need at that moment at a very subsidized rate of 50 shillings, 100
shillings, 150 shillings. Lastly, they (publishers) spend so much to print
physical catalogs for you to know what is available in the market. But now,
what we have in mind is to give them a free platform. We display and market
books for you. We shall be giving them free marketing.’

Austin Okoth, the event’s MC, ended the ceremony with an elegant
zinger: ‘Read and let read!’

About Me

Born on April 23rd just like William Shakespeare, I have dabbled in
just about every type of writing. My books include: 'When the Whirlwind
Passes'(suspense novel), 'The Moon is Made of Green Cheese' (poetry
anthology), 'Kiss, Commander, Promise' (short story anthology) and 'Africa on My Mind'. They are available as paperbacks and e-books at Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/NewShakespeare